John Daniel Singleton was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He was best known for writing and directing Boyz n the Hood in 1991, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award. John Singleton was a native of South Los Angeles, and many of his films, such as Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), had themes which resonated with the contemporary urban population. He also directed the drama Rosewood (1997) and the action films Shaft (2000), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005). He co-created the television crime drama Snowfall. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for "The Race Card", the fifth episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American coming-of-age hood drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. It stars Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett. Boyz n the Hood follows Tre Styles, who is sent to live with his father Furious Styles (Fishburne) in South Central Los Angeles, surrounded by the neighborhood's booming gang culture. The film's title is a double entendre; a play on the term boyhood and a reference to the 1987 N.W.A rap song of the same name, written by Ice Cube.
Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American film director, producer, photographer and musician who has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures, in particular homosexuality; as a result, Van Sant is considered one of the most prominent auteurs of the New Queer Cinema movement.
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films. In fact, it is not unusual for well known actors who are cast in independent films to take substantial pay cuts if they truly believe in the message of the film, or because they want to work under an independent director who has a solid reputation for being highly talented, or if they are returning a favor. There are many examples of the latter, including John Travolta and Bruce Willis taking less pay to star in Pulp Fiction.
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2009, Incendies in 2010 and Enemy in 2013. The first three of these films also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, while the latter was awarded the prize for best Canadian film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Association.
George Tillman Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director.
James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal.
The American Black Film Festival is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on black film -- works by Black members of the film industry. It is held to recognize achievements of film actors of African descent and to honor films that stand out in their portrayal of Black experience.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
Wildscreen is a wildlife conservation charity based in Bristol, England.
Stephanie Allain is an American producer of independent movies in Hollywood, California.
The St. Louis International Film Festival is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 2003. The festival screens approximately 300 films over a period of 10 days during November.
Yvonne L. Andrews, known professionally as Tina Andrews, is an American actress, television producer, screenwriter, author and playwright. She played Valerie Grant in the NBC soap opera series Days of Our Lives from 1975 until 1977.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival, was an international film festival which started in 2007. The event was held annually in October in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The ADFF aimed to showcase the best films from the region alongside standout productions from prominent international filmmakers. Since 2012, the festival had been part of the Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority, specifically under Media Zone Events and powered by its partner company, twofour54. It was officially scrapped after eight versions in 2015.
Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His first feature film, Fruitvale Station (2013), won the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He has since co-written and directed the seventh film in the Rocky series, Creed (2015), and the Marvel film Black Panther (2018), the latter of which broke numerous box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time by an African American director.
Michelle Bello is a British Nigerian film director and film producer. She is also CEO of a Nigerian-based entertainment and publishing company, Blu Star Entertainment Limited. Bello was born in London, England.
The Athena Film Festival is an annual film festival held at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City. The festival takes place in February and focuses on films celebrating women and leadership. In addition to showing films, the festival hosts filmmaker workshops, master classes and panels on a variety of topics relevant to women in the film industry. The Athena Film Festival was co-founded by Kathryn Kolbert, Founding Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College and Melissa Silverstein, founder of the Women and Hollywood initiative and the festival's Artistic Director.
Valerie Heather Weiss is an American filmmaker and producer. She has directed and produced numerous films and founded the production company PhD Productions in 2004, which focuses on developing films rooted in science.
Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF) is a Bengali film festival in the city of Hyderabad and is being organized annually since 2014. The venue of the festival is the Prasad Film Preview Labs, Hyderabad. The first edition of the film festival was held in the year 2014. It is the only curated Bengali film festival in India.
Mr. Soul! is a 2018 American documentary film produced, written and directed by documentary filmmaker Melissa Haizlip. The film was co-produced by Doug Blush and co-directed by Sam Pollard. The film tells the story of Ellis Haizlip, the producer and host of SOUL!, the music-and-talk program that aired on public television from 1968 to 1973 and aimed at a Black audience. It was released in 2018 and has since received 21 filmmaking awards. Attorney Chaz Ebert, record executive Ron Gillyard, producer and director Stan Lathan, producer Rishi Rajani, producer Stephanie T. Rance, actor Blair Underwood and screenwriter, producer and actress Lena Waithe are the executive producers of the film.
